First Impressions
by SaraiMichelle
Summary: A one-shot about the first time Piers Nivans met Sheva Alomar. A sorta not really prelude to 'Refusing to Remember'. Slight Piers/Sheva and Sheva/Chris. Enjoy!


**First Impressions**

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**Authors note:** _I suppose you could call this a prelude to 'Refusing to Remember', my first story on here. The only reason I wouldn't call this a prelude is because that in this story, Sheva's been living in Africa this whole time and hasn't transferred to America. So I wanted to follow the files from RE6 that Sheva had sent Piers an email about Chris missing and offered her help. But also add in the aspect from 'RTR' that she was the one to go search for him. Read on and I'll talk to you in the bottom A/N._

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It was useless. All of it.

He shouldn't have been sitting at his desk typing away on the company computer to find his missing captain. Piers urged the directors to let him go to Edonia and search first hand for Captain Redfield. But they'd decline his suggestions and just say that they were doing everything they could to find him. He had gotten in a decent argument over the matter, demanding that Redfield had to be found and someone should be out there looking for him, not sitting at a desk back in America.

It wasn't until he got an email from a stranger the other day that restored some hope. He didn't know who this Sheva Alomar was, but he had heard about her from a few people. Most notably from his missing captain, Chris Redfield. Chris didn't talk about her on missions, only when they were at base or leisure time. He seemed to be fond of the Special Operative Agent and when she was brought up, he could only say good things about her. Piers often wondered if something more had gone on between them, but he never involved himself in his captain's affairs.

About four days ago, Piers had gotten an email from Agent Alomar from the West African branch of the BSAA. When he read that Chris was a very important person to her, it fed his ideas that she and Captain Redfield had been something more than just mission partners. After reading the email, he contemplated the idea of her help. Maybe bringing in someone else would make his directors see that it was time to send a search team out. Almost immediately, he went to his oblivious directors and told them how he had an agent willing to go search for Captain Redfield and it would be on the West African branch's time, not the North American's. It took some negotiating but after a while, they agreed.

Piers wasn't a man of great celebration. He stayed stoic and did his job, replying to Agent Alomar's email. In the response, he said that he would take up her help and asked if she could come to America so they could discuss their plan of action further. So now at any moment, she would arrive at the office and he'd get to meet her for the first time.

As if on cue, a quiet knock came at his door as he was looking at some files. He beckoned his guest in, standing to greet his guest. The door opened slowly and after a small second, a woman who looked to be in her mid-20s peeked into the room and offered a shy smile. She stepped in while tucking a lock of wavy dark brown hair behind her ear and closing the door behind her.

"My name is Sheva Alomar," she announced, holding her hand out over the desk to shake his.

"Piers Nivans," he introduced himself, giving her delicate hand a small shake.

First impressions meant everything to Piers, so he made sure to stay observant of this woman. Upon seeing her for the first time, he could see that she was an attractive woman, petite with a pretty face. Beautiful even. She looked to be modest from how she smiled shyly and fiddled with her hair as she walked in. From what her file said, she was an excellent marksman, claiming that she could hit a target from 100 yards away, possibly even more. It instantly left him feeling intrigued. He himself was known for his sniping skills so obviously he saw her as a competition. But now that he talked to her in the flesh, the competition was washed away, now replaced with true curiosity.

"I was sad to hear that Chris had gone missing," she admitted as she took a seat in front of his desk. "I was really worried when I hadn't heard from him and then a day or two later I was told that he had checked out of the hospital in Edonia and nobody knew where he was."

Piers nodded and leaned back in his seat. "He was admitted to the hospital and was announced to be in a coma, but after a few hours he woke back up with amnesia. Initially he wasn't violent, but he wasn't himself either. I didn't come to the hospital in time before he ran away and disappeared."

A blue expression decorated Sheva's exotic features, making the air in the room more thick. He thought it odd that the entire mood changed around him because of a simple emotion that this woman felt.

"How bad was the amnesia?" she inquired, searching his face for answers.

"The nurses said that he couldn't even remember who he was or where he was, but that he was guilty about something. I'm guessing that even though he couldn't remember, he was guilty that he lost the team in Edonia. We don't have any traces of him after the hospital. He could still be in Edonia or maybe Russia. My directors are refusing to let me go search for him because they don't want to pay for the time it would take in a foreign country that we don't have a branch in. But they agreed to let you search for him because you're not part of this branch."

Sheva sat straight with a firm nod, holding her hands together in her lap. "I'll do everything I can to find him."

Interested in her intentions, he thought about asking about her ties to Chris, but he also wasn't sure if he really wanted to involve himself in her affairs. "I trust you with this. I know Chris trusted you and really I need his sister off my back so I can get some work done."

"Claire?" she asked.

"Yeah, you two know each other?"

She tucked another lock of hair behind her ear, looking around his plain office. "We've only talked over the phone, but we're good friends. I'm actually going to meet her after this."

"So, you must be pretty close to Captain Redfield?" He was curious and it was time that he just wanted answers.

Sheva didn't know much about Piers Nivans. She knew as much as a file could tell her and what Chris spoke about him. The little she knew about him was that he was a young and dedicated soldier, passionate about his line of work. She had heard from her coworkers at the West African branch that he resembled a young Chris Redfield. And she found herself interested in the young agent, not really looking for similarities between him and Chris but just him as an individual.

When Chris told her that he had gotten a new second in hand for the Alpha Team, he said that Nivans was a promising soldier. Sheva felt slightly jealous when Chris told her how well he was with shooting a gun, one of the best he had seen in a long time. She didn't have to say anything for Chris to say that she was part of those best shooters, trying to reassure that Piers was no better or worse than her. But still, she found herself in a competition with this agent that she had never met or heard of until that day. But now that she was in front of him, she could see what Chris meant when he said he was promising. Piers was a professional with an edge. She could just imagine how he handled himself on missions; probably with ease but she could tell that he probably was ticked easily. Pondering over what he would look like when he got angry, she remembered that he had asked a question.

"I guess you can say that. We talk on the phone often and keep in good touch. Well, we did until he went missing. He's an important person to me, you know."

"I understand," Piers answered with a straight face. "You don't have to tell me anymore."

Slightly confused by what that meant, she spoke in a light voice. "We're not together, if that's what you're thinking. Well, not really. I mean, what I'm trying to say is that I'm single."

He couldn't stop the easy laughter that escaped him as her expression turned embarrassed. She bit at her lower lip once her sentence was finished and looked to her hands in her lap to avoid looking him in the eye. Not really sure why she told him that, he was kind of flattered that she told him she was single. He wasn't sure why, but it made his head ache a little less to know that.

"It's okay, I know what you mean. Captain Redfield and I aren't together either," he informed her with heavy humor laced in his voice. He cracked the sarcastic joke in hopes to get her loosen up a bit. The hypocrisy in that was that he was a tight person himself, keeping to himself and watching every move someone made, deliberating over his words before he spoke them. He just really disliked being with someone who was just as in control as he was. It made the situation awkward and uncomfortable.

She nervously laughed, not meeting his eyes. She didn't mean to make it sound like she was putting herself on the market for him. But it just came out. She didn't want him mistaking that she and Chris were in a relationship together. She was as single as they came and not really looking for anyone. She liked being single, it suited her lifestyle. She didn't have to worry about sharing a home with someone or having to juggle a relationship and work at the same time. There was a point that she and Chris embarked on that once. It was more of an accident really.

It all happened a year ago when he had come back to Africa on a mission and came to visit her when he was done with work. They had gotten drunk and ended up sleeping together. They thought about doing the long distance thing, but decided that it was a no-go. However, they did promise that when they were ready to settle down, maybe take on some desk jobs, retire even, they'd try out the relationship scene. Their attraction was obvious, but it was put on hold because the world still needed to be saved and they were in different countries. The promise would always be there, but right now she had no ties to anyone.

So when he went missing, she felt it her duty to find him. She was constantly put on missions for the first few months that he was gone, but once she had some free time, she emailed the man in charge of the search, Piers Nivans, and offered her help. She was thankful that he accepted and even put her in charge of going to Edonia to find Chris.

She had to admit that she found Piers cute. Maybe it was the fact that he resembled a younger Chris, but something told her that she was attracted to him because of who he was as a person. He was handsome with boyish charm, green eyes that made her think he had French lineage, and a small smile that she knew must be quite impressive if he put in full effort to show off a bright grin. She looked forward when he spoke.

"Well, now that we got that out of the way," he began, "I guess we should talk about Edonia."

They talked about what happened when Alpha Team entered the civil war going on in Edonia and how slowly the team was numbered off, dwindling down to the point when it was just him, Chris, and four other men. The four men, excluding him and Chris, had mutated after being exposed to the C-virus, charging for the still human Piers and Chris. Chris had been so dumbfounded that he couldn't do anything but watch as the mutated charged for him and threw him around, effectively hitting his head and bringing on the amnesia symptoms. Once Chris had gone missing, Piers was ordered to come home and start the search from America for him.

And here he was now, talking to a fellow agent and previous partner of Captain Redfield and discussing what her first steps were going to be once she landed in the cold country, Edonia. In a few days, she'd get on that plane and search for him until he was standing right in front of her, ready to come home.

"He may not remember you, you know that?" Piers carefully questioned, worried that she may freak out at the idea.

"Yes, I know. I've already prepared myself if he can't. But I'll do my best to make him trust me and come home."

"And he won't be himself. He'll probably be a dick to you at first. You know, PTSD, amnesia, probably grumpy."

She laughed, going over the list in her head. "I'm nervous about it, but I'm ready for it. I'm expecting it really."

"Good," he said with a nod. He thought for a moment then sat forward and ripped off a small piece of paper from a file. He scribbled numbers on the ripped paper and handed it to her. "Here's my personal number. In case I'm not at the office or some other reason, you can contact me on that number if there's anything you need or information you need to pass on. I wouldn't try to communicate with the directors directly. They might keep information from me that I need to know."

Sheva read the seven digits as a small smirk grew on the corner of her lips. Either he was really just offering another way to trade information or he was subtly making a move on her. She'd like to think that he was going for the latter.

"Is this just for work or more personal things?" she shamelessly asked, slipping the paper into her pocket.

Piers swallowed hard. She was implying that he was flirting and from what it seemed, she was returning the favor. He wasn't sure but maybe he did give her his number for more reasons than just work. Initially it was for work, but now he welcomed the idea that it was for more personal opportunities, too.

"Uh, both, I guess," he told her in a low voice, slightly awkward to respond. He looked up to find that she was smiling and he found it contagious as a smile of his own curved his lips.

Sheva stood and held out her hand for him to shake once again. He did so and once their hands separated, she turned to leave. She stopped as she opened the door and smiled back at him. "I'll talk to you soon, Agent Nivans."

"Just Piers, call me Piers," he muttered, crossing his arms over his chest.

"All right, I'll talk to you soon, Piers."

And she was gone. He was left to the thoughts of what had just occurred. First she was nervous then the tables turned and now he was the anxious one. Well he liked her and she liked him. A mutual attraction was a good thing and it made him feel confident. The fact that she had a past with Redfield left him slightly uneasy, but she told him he was single. And God knows that he was single, too.

As he sat back down in his chair, he had a good feeling about Sheva Alomar. She was more than capable and she was single. She'd go on the mission to find Chris, bring him home and come back to America. And when she did come back, he knew that he'd ask her out, because this wasn't something he was willing to pass up.

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**Author's note:** _I hope that you can see where this ties into 'RTR' but is a standalone as well. If you have read 'RTR' then you know what happens between Sheva, Piers and Chris. I've thought about one day going back and rewriting 'RTR' for fun. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. Do you think I should? Time will tell._

_So this is kind of a replacement for my update for 'All But Forgotten'. I'm slacking with writing on that story and I really wanted to post something, so I came up with this and it basically wrote itself. I will get back to 'ABF' and update soon, but I hope this will suffice as a replacement for the meantime._

_Please let me know what you thought and I hope you all have a good day. -Sarai_


End file.
